


I Keep at Least Three Different Journals

by swiftishere



Series: MSA One-Shots [11]
Category: Mystery Skulls Animated
Genre: Actual Paranormal Researcher Vivi (but That's Canon Already), Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Role Reversal, Diary/Journal, Gen, Ghost Arthur (Mystery Skulls Animated), is there a tag for like. journals, sort of found footage esque?, well role rotation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-09
Updated: 2020-04-09
Packaged: 2021-03-02 04:00:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,131
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23558773
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/swiftishere/pseuds/swiftishere
Summary: Vivi, Lewis, and Mystery are doing rather routine things. Driving, investigating the paranormal... whatever it is Vivi's searching for in her free time.At one point, on one otherwise normal day, their van breaks down in front of a very strange house, and they make the questionable decision to go inside.Later Vivi writes about the experience in three different ways.
Relationships: Arthur & Lewis (Mystery Skulls Animated), Lewis & Vivi (Mystery Skulls Animated)
Series: MSA One-Shots [11]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1440190
Comments: 11
Kudos: 98





	I Keep at Least Three Different Journals

**Author's Note:**

> this is OLD wip. also this started out as art so if you want to see (slightly altered) the page from vivi's encounter log, you can check that out [over here](https://nemesis-is-my-middle-name.tumblr.com/post/190247837143/a-page-from-the-journal-of-vivi-yukino-concerning)  
> edit: AUGH MY RICH TEXT

_VMY 3/17/_ ████

_Travel log day 53_

_Achieved: Fucking nothing._

_Changes to plans: Don't have a ghost related death happen. Everything else can stay the same._

_To Do: Same as yesterday's. Uh. Continue pursuing lead from day 46, review supplies and make shopping list if needed, check in at Andante library for requested materials._

_Something weird happened today. Not useful weird, just interesting weird._

_Our car broke down. That's not the interesting part, it's just an annoying thing. The interesting part is that it broke down right in front of this huge old tower. Well we were already stuck and there was no service to be found, and honestly I was kind of in that mood of if there's a murderer in here let them fucking try it because I'd love to have someone to just whale on. ~~And with our jinx gone we have a lot more wiggle room with risky things~~ _

_Nope, can't think about that. Not as funny as I thought it was going to be._

_So we went up to the door._

_Actually scratch that, I need to take a second to tell you about this tower. Picture a house. A small one. I'm talking like a cabin sized, that small. Now copy and paste that house like twenty times and smush them all together in a sort of vertical shape. That's what this tower looked like. No order, no organization, not even an outer finish, just a bunch of rooms that someone had stacked up on each other. There's no way it was structurally sound. Or that it should have lasted this long without rain or something getting to it. You see my point. It's magic._

_So we go inside and the door's not locked and we end up in this room. It's small and it's just full of doors. Like kind of disorientingly so. More than there should have been from what we saw outside. If I had to guess, I'd say that's a factor of the unique construction of the tower - it doesn't obey the normal laws of physics anyway, and given the structure if you were just putting doors where doors were supposed to go, you'd struggle to get anywhere. The ghost naturally places pathways on frequent routes for convenience. It may not even be conscious.   
_

_It also didn't much like us being there. The whole place reacted. Not surprising, it's a construct and probably has a lot of the ghost's will put into it, but it was kind of a scare when it happened to us. Fire, swords, the floor started falling away, all that kind of stuff. One thing led to another and there's not much to say here so I'll skip ahead, we all three end up getting separated.  
_

_It's at this point that Lewis encounters the ghost responsible for the construction. I'm writing this based on his account, so I can't entirely trust it, but it all sounds pretty reasonable. He says that he found the ghost at the top part of the tower; that it was just delighted at his presence; that it then started to try to lead him back down the tower. He followed along, purely because, according to him, it didn't seem too threatening at that point. The tower had quieted down for him too, so he thought it'd be safe. To be fair, he was right. (What does it indicate about the ghost, that the construction was so actively hostile but the conscious presence was so friendly?)_

_To my account: the ghost seems afraid of and/or hostile towards magically powerful individuals, or maybe just people who interrupt it in the middle of what it's doing. I don't think it's the ghost hunter part it's wary of, since it was anything but hostile towards Lewis._

_It took him on sort of a tour, apparently. He says he doesn't remember too much of the rooms he saw, but they seemed pretty normal. Kitchen, living room, etc. He led him back to the entry room, which is where we all met up again. The ghost's behavior changed distinctly when it noticed me and Mystery, but it wasn't instantly aggressive. It seemed more wary than anything - demonstrating either remarkable restraint for a new spirit, or a degree of fear/anxiety that counteracts any more aggressive instincts. It wasn't until I - I don't even remember anymore, but I said something about needing to leave or being ready to go - and that was what did it._

_The hostile behavior was fairly standard, demonstrating control over lightning and to a lesser extent, fire. *Why does it heavily favor lightning, but its form incorporates mostly fire? Indicative of the physical form not being consciously controlled? The only other interesting thing to note is that at no point did it place Lewis in the way of its attacks, even when it would have been most efficient to do so. There was some attempt made to hold him in place, but it was ultimately ineffective. It demonstrated little interest in harming Mystery, but also little regard for his safety._

_A full write-up of the encountered spirit on page_ ██ _of my encounter log._

_VMY _

* * *

_VMY 3/17/_ ████ 

_Personal journal._

_Hey Art. It's me again. You're gonna be so mad when you hear about what we got up to today._

_We met a ghost! A new one. Not just new to us, but new to everything! They weren't very happy about that. Or, maybe they were okay? It was really strange, the way they were behaving. I'd have loved a chance to study them more closely, but well, you know._

_Or, you don't. I keep forgetting that you weren't there. Or that I haven't already told you this story face-to-face. That you're not... just around ~~anymore~~ right now. Well if I miss any important details I'll blame it on that, and when you read this you'll have to tell me to catch you up. Not that I'll remember this incident in a couple week's time. Maybe ask Lewis? Not that his memory's been so great lately either. Guess it'll just be lost to the annals of history. _

_You know, the incident itself wasn't that unusual. We went somewhere we shouldn't have and a spirit didn't like it. This time it was a big old tower and the spirit was a baby ghost with no anchor._

_Oh, that was the weirdest part! It didn't have an anchor. Like, at all. Maybe they'd hidden it somewhere, or hadn't encountered it yet, but it was really strange. Most of the time ghosts can't bear to be parted from it. No way a normal ghost would take the time to build a whole base if they didn't have their anchor with them yet._

_Okay, so the actual incident. Like I said, you're gonna freak out. So we got split up kind of right when we went in the door, and I promise I wasn't trying to this time! I don't do that anymore! It just... happened, we got chased up some stairs and through a door and then the door didn't have a floor on the other side of it and next thing I know I'm in the sub-basement and no Lewis or Mystery to be found. I was fine, though. I don't think it was trying to hurt me at that point, just chase me off alone._

_Lewis says that when he got separated, the path cleared out and there were no more traps. Like he'd ended up in a sort of back route. It just kept going up and up and he didn't see any other way to go, so he followed them. And that's why he met the ghost first! It was hanging out way up at the top of the tower, sitting in a little room and writing. No, he didn't get a look at what. According to him it was all excited at first, like it was overjoyed to have visitors. It kept asking was he okay, and could it do anything for him, and being all excited about showing him around. Lewis just went along with it because it didn't seem like it would hurt anything, apparently it was actually kinda cute._

_Oh! It also knew his name right away, so I guess it must have some sort of mild divination or psychic ability? It also knew his tea preferences, which again, more cute than anything._

_So they were walking around like he said, apparently the ghost was super ~~distractable~~ ~~distractible?~~ Distractiable and wouldn't stay in a place for more than five, ten seconds. And then it got down to the main level just as I was heading back up there and here's where disaster happens. _

_At first the ghost ~~wasn't~~ was just kind of wary of me, I think. Circling, sizing me up, trying to figure out whether I was a threat or not. And then I mentioned to Lewis... I don't even remember what it was now, really, I just said something about leaving soon and the ghost flipped out. I mean it really didn't like that idea. I don't know if it was Lewis leaving in general or him leaving with me, but either way it got instantly murder-hostile. That's when we got a good up close look at its powers - it seems mostly electricity based, with some fire but it definitely favors the lightning for attacking. Luckily that's when Mystery got back from wherever he'd been and helped me stop it from frying me to a crisp, and we managed to get to the door and book it out of there before it shook off the bindings. _

_Huh. I hadn't really thought about it before now, but the car just... started. Just like that, even though it was totally dead before. I wonder what was wrong with it in the first place. I guess it could've been a magic thing, given where we ended up, but still. You could probably give me a diagnosis just based on that little description, I'm sure._

_Oh, that reminds me. Something occurred to me while we were running. I think Lewis said something about being lucky to have made it out of there before it hurt one of us, and that made me think. Now that we're not factoring your curse into things, a lot more risks are skewed in our favor. Or, more so than they would be otherwise, at least. We can be a little less cautious, you know?_

_Agh, that sounds so horrible. It's not that I'm glad you're not here! Honestly I don't even think it's a good thing. You know I'm always tempted to do the stupid dangerous thing and having a concrete reason to why that would be a bad idea, it ~~keeps~~ kept me in check there. Now that that's gone... I'm already feeling kind of tempted. Just to see how far I can get before my luck runs out. I know it's a bad idea but it's hard to ignore, you know? _

_Of course you don't know. When have you ever tested your luck and been glad about it?_

_This whole tangent was a bad idea._

_Anyway, miss you, wish you were here. See you soon. ASAP. I think I'm onto something here, if it's not a lead than it might be a lead to a lead._

_Love, Vi_

* * *

_MSPI Encounter Log 0049a - "Goldie"_

_**Type** : Incorporeal/Undead_

_**Name** : Unknown_

_**Class** : Unknown_

_**DoD/CoD** : Unknown_

_**Anchor Class and Location** : Unknown_

_**Photo or Description** : Photo unavailable due to magic-electronic interference. Appears as a skeletal adult human, slender, with an electric "tail" in place of legs. Clothing present but style and period unidentifiable due to presence of fire and decay on body, possibly related to CoD. _

_**Powers** : Electricity (primary), fire, object manipulation, object creation, mild cat. psychic and/or divination - power listing places class at least 3. Exact class and power listing unidentifiable due to volatile nature of powers. _

**_Other Notes:_ **

_Objects are confirmed to be functional, not merely illusory. However, the spirit appears to be extremely limited in what it can create, likely only to what it can clearly and entirely picture._

_Capable of speech, but only speaks in a whisper. Unclear if this is by choice or involuntary.  
_

_Form and powers are incredibly unstable, seem to respond more to subconscious cues than conscious wishes or direction. Possibly due to internal conflict or unresolved tension over death.  
_

_Behavior is typically erratic - central variations appear to include hospitality and service consistent with a "good host," and extreme hostility up to and including lethal levels of powers directed at perceived threats or aggressors. Exact triggers for mood shifts not clearly identified, but may be related to the presence of magical power or threatening individuals, or interruption of "host" behavior._

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Free like a bird, but also bound](https://archiveofourown.org/works/28535202) by [MageOfLight](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MageOfLight/pseuds/MageOfLight)




End file.
